Government launches sexual health strategy

The much-awaited National Strategy for Sexual Health has been unveiled by the government and contains a key strategy to test much more widely for sexually transmitted infections.

In an effort to target various high-risk groups the Government have endorsed a major multi-media public education campaign offsetting the high cost against the potential savings in terms of health.

Its launch on Friday 27 July coincided with the publication of figures showing a big rise in cases of key STIs such as syphilis and HIV. The figures, from the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), show gonorrhoea is at its highest for over a decade.

The government's strategy will include a targeted screening programme for chlamydia - a sexually transmitted disease that can leave women infertile - and more routine testing for HIV/Aids.

For four years the Department of Health has wrestled with how to deal with the problem of sexually transmitted diseases soaring, as it seems the safe sex message of the 1980s is one the wane - especially among young people.

Professor Michael Adler, an STI and HIV expert who helped develop the strategy, said: "We have to be honest and admit that the rising trends of STIs and HIV, associated with the fact that the safer sex messages of the 1980s are no longer being adhered to, mean that we have a major public health problem that we have to face up to."

Dr Gwenda Hughes, of the PHLS, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the increase in the number of sexually transmitted infections was particularly high among teenage women.

"The most likely reason is that more people are practising unsafe sex," said Ms Hughes.

Of the 6,223 new cases of gonorrhoea among women, 40 per cent were in the 16-19 age group. Genital warts, caused by the human papillomavirus, are the most common STI, with 64,000 cases in 2000.

Among the government's plans are: extension of screening for chlamydia and HIV; launch of a major television and newspaper advertising campaign warning of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies; reducing new HIV infections by a quarter in six years. (AMcE)